Social Change Movement:
Rachel Carson was an environmentalist. She greatly cared about nature and strived to protect it. She conducted research and educated people about the wonders of the world around them. She wanted to make people aware of our harmful effects on the environment and how these effects could hurt us in return. She is most known for her work on the dangers of pesticides in farming following World War II. Rachel Carson pushed for government policies that would protect human health and the environment. Her life mission was to live in harmony with the environment, preserve and learn from nature, minimize the effect of man-made chemicals on the natural systems of the world, and to consider the implications of human actions on the global web of life.
Purpose/Drive:
The reason Rachel Carson was so intent on helping the environment is because she loved nature. She cared about the world and wanted to help protect it. She grew up in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, overlooking the Allegheny River. Her mother also had a deep appreciation for the environment. Rachel Carson’s childhood allowed her to spend plenty of time outside, strengthening her bond with nature.
Occupations/Socio Economic Background:
Rachel Carson was a biologist, ecologist, and writer. Carson graduated in 1929 from Pennsylvania College. Then she studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. During the Great Depression, Carson wrote radio scripts under the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and wrote feature articles for the Baltimore Sun. In 1936, she became a scientist and editor in the federal service and soon became Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.Rachel Carson wrote numerous educational pamphlets and scientific articles on conservation and natural resources, which led to her writing books. Her first book was Under the Sea-wind (1941), which, along with her other first few books, was about the beauty and mystery of the oceans. Following World War II, Carson began focusing on synthetic pesticides and their dangerous effects because farmers, with government support, began to use vast amounts of them without thought. After four years of research, Carson wrote her most famous book, Silent Spring (1962) to educate the public on the vast dangers of pesticides. Silent Spring is credited as being the founding document of the modern environmental movement. In 1963, Rachel Carson asked Congress for new policies to protect human health and the environment.
References (friends/foes):
~Lyndon B. Johnson- shared Rachel Carson’s concern for conservation of the environment. He passed legislation, such as the Clean Air Act of 1965 and the Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966 during his presidency.
~Ralph Nader- helped protect the environment by insuring the rights of the Environmental Protection Agency.
~The chemical industry became a foe of Rachel Carson after her research and informative book, Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides. The government was also a foe of Carson because they allowed pesticides to be used and were not passing enough strong legislation to protect the environment.
Argument: Protection of the environment is necessary for human survival. If the environment is destroyed, humans can not live. Even when one, tiny species becomes extinct, it affects many other species. In order to protect the environment, people first need to be educated about it. If people can learn about the beauty and wonders of the world around them, they will become more invested in protecting nature. Also, many people are not aware of the harmful effects people have on the environment when they are careless. Rachel Carson dedicated her life to educating people on the magnificence of the world around them and the threat humans impose on their environment. She conducted research and discovered some unknown hazardous impacts of humans on Earth. A perfect example of this was Carson’s pesticide research. Many farmers were using pesticides without thought after World War II because they wanted to protect their crops. However, Carson found that pesticides can be extremely harmful. She discovered that they can spread through the air, hurting the ozone layer, and they can easily find their way into water sources, disrupting whole ecosystems. Pesticides can kill plants and animals or cause diseases and birth defects. The harmful effects of pesticides were not known until Rachel Carson’s research. People did not know that they were only hurting themselves when they hurt the environment. Rachel Carson sparked the modern environmental movement. This movement is working to protect the world we live in and, in turn, the human race.
Social Change Movement:
Rachel Carson was an environmentalist. She greatly cared about nature and strived to protect it. She conducted research and educated people about the wonders of the world around them. She wanted to make people aware of our harmful effects on the environment and how these effects could hurt us in return. She is most known for her work on the dangers of pesticides in farming following World War II. Rachel Carson pushed for government policies that would protect human health and the environment. Her life mission was to live in harmony with the environment, preserve and learn from nature, minimize the effect of man-made chemicals on the natural systems of the world, and to consider the implications of human actions on the global web of life.
Purpose/Drive:
The reason Rachel Carson was so intent on helping the environment is because she loved nature. She cared about the world and wanted to help protect it. She grew up in the rural river town of Springdale, Pennsylvania, overlooking the Allegheny River. Her mother also had a deep appreciation for the environment. Rachel Carson’s childhood allowed her to spend plenty of time outside, strengthening her bond with nature.
Occupations/Socio Economic Background:
Rachel Carson was a biologist, ecologist, and writer. Carson graduated in 1929 from Pennsylvania College. Then she studied at the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory and received her MA in zoology from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. During the Great Depression, Carson wrote radio scripts under the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries and wrote feature articles for the Baltimore Sun. In 1936, she became a scientist and editor in the federal service and soon became Editor-in-Chief of all publications for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rachel Carson wrote numerous educational pamphlets and scientific articles on conservation and natural resources, which led to her writing books. Her first book was Under the Sea-wind (1941), which, along with her other first few books, was about the beauty and mystery of the oceans. Following World War II, Carson began focusing on synthetic pesticides and their dangerous effects because farmers, with government support, began to use vast amounts of them without thought. After four years of research, Carson wrote her most famous book, Silent Spring (1962) to educate the public on the vast dangers of pesticides. Silent Spring is credited as being the founding document of the modern environmental movement. In 1963, Rachel Carson asked Congress for new policies to protect human health and the environment.
References (friends/foes):
~Lyndon B. Johnson- shared Rachel Carson’s concern for conservation of the environment. He passed legislation, such as the Clean Air Act of 1965 and the Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966 during his presidency.
~Ralph Nader- helped protect the environment by insuring the rights of the Environmental Protection Agency.
~The chemical industry became a foe of Rachel Carson after her research and informative book, Silent Spring, about the dangers of pesticides. The government was also a foe of Carson because they allowed pesticides to be used and were not passing enough strong legislation to protect the environment.
Argument:
Protection of the environment is necessary for human survival. If the environment is destroyed, humans can not live. Even when one, tiny species becomes extinct, it affects many other species. In order to protect the environment, people first need to be educated about it. If people can learn about the beauty and wonders of the world around them, they will become more invested in protecting nature. Also, many people are not aware of the harmful effects people have on the environment when they are careless. Rachel Carson dedicated her life to educating people on the magnificence of the world around them and the threat humans impose on their environment. She conducted research and discovered some unknown hazardous impacts of humans on Earth. A perfect example of this was Carson’s pesticide research. Many farmers were using pesticides without thought after World War II because they wanted to protect their crops. However, Carson found that pesticides can be extremely harmful. She discovered that they can spread through the air, hurting the ozone layer, and they can easily find their way into water sources, disrupting whole ecosystems. Pesticides can kill plants and animals or cause diseases and birth defects. The harmful effects of pesticides were not known until Rachel Carson’s research. People did not know that they were only hurting themselves when they hurt the environment. Rachel Carson sparked the modern environmental movement. This movement is working to protect the world we live in and, in turn, the human race.
Bibliography:
**Carson, Rachel. Silent spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.
Lear, Linda. "The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson." RachelCarson.org. Web. 22 Dec. 2009. <http://www.rachelcarson.org/default.aspx>.
Lewis, Jone J. "Rachel Carson." About.com. Web. 22 Dec. 2009. <http://womenshistory.about.com/od/carsonrachel/p/rachel_carson.htm>.
"The Rachel Carson Homestead." Rachelcarsonhomestead.org. Web. 22 Dec. 2009. <http://www.rachelcarsonhomestead.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx>.
"Why are Pesticides Bad for the Environment?" Web. 22 Dec. 2009. <http://www.bladeslawncare.com/pesticidesandenvironment.html>.